Professor David Peimer
The Merchant of Venice in Film, Part 2
Summary
Professor David Peimer continues his talk about how the image of Shylock, and therefore the image of the Jew, is portrayed in “The Merchant of Venice” in all of its various film productions through history. Part 2 of 2.
Professor David Peimer
David Peimer is a professor of theatre and performance studies in the UK. He has taught at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and New York University (Global Division), and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing. He has written eleven plays and directed forty in places like South Africa, New York, Brussels, London, Berlin, Zulu Kingdom, Athens, and more. His writing has been published widely and he is the editor of Armed Response: Plays from South Africa (2009) and the interactive digital book Theatre in the Camps (2012). He is on the board of the Pinter Centre in London.
Absolutely, I mean, as we see here, Michael Radford discussing with Pacino, Pacino discussing with Jeremy Irons, and Pacino saying the three of them would talk quite a bit to get an understanding of the scene before going into playing it. So without a doubt, the director and the main actors we definitely discussed, the only time I ever read was Coppola talking about directing Brando in “The Godfather” where he never gave him a single direction at all. And Kaza directing Brando in “Streetcar” when he was very young, obviously Brando was very young, also never gave him a direction. They respected the brilliance of the talent and the intelligence. I haven’t read of any other director actor who has just let the actor sort of do whatever.